Emotions and Understanding
by something like human
Summary: Duo and Wufei notice that there is something not right with Heero. They endeavor to help their fellow pilot. friendship fic...no pairings


Title: Emotions and Understanding

Author: Something Like Human

Rating: G (wow…a first for me)

Pairings: Friendship, but if you want to think it: 2+5, and 1+2+5, oh and 1+R

A/N: see bottom

"Aw man, Wu, he's at it again!" Duo said as he flopped down on the bed in the room. Wufei looked up from the book he was reading to regard the other pilot. 

"Who is at what?"

"It's Heero-I-don't-know-how-to-be-human-Yuy," the American replied. "I was trying to talk to him and he wouldn't even look at me. The more I talked to him, the more he typed away at his laptop! That man is going to drive me insane!"

"Wouldn't be a long drive."

"Oh, very funny!"  Duo said sitting up and glaring at the Chinese pilot. "But seriously, there is something just not right with Heero.  I mean, you can't tell me with his entire 'soldier' training that they couldn't at least have taught him how to act human. I thought people were born with some sort of knowledge of social skills."

"They usually are," Wufei replied under his breath. "Hmmmm … I wonder…"

"Wonder what?"

"Let me do some research," the one-time scholar said. "Then I'll let you know."

"Fine, I'll go…I know how you get when you're looking stuff up. You're almost as bad as Heero. Well, at least you respond to me but it's usually with a threat to myself involving your sword."  
  


A few hours later, Chang emerged from his room just in time for dinner. He found that the other two pilots residing in the safe house were just finishing up putting things out on the table.  It appeared to be canned soup and sandwiches.  At least the bread had just come from the store that morning and would be fairly fresh.  Taking his seat, he quietly observed the other two. Duo was trying to ask the Japanese pilot what his favorite type of sandwich was and said pilot was not even looking at the speaker but was filling his bowl of soup quietly.

"Oh, hey Wu!" Duo greeted. "Find anything out?"

"Actually, I think I did. And my name is not 'Wu'."

"Well?"

Wufei ate a spoonful of soup as he regarded Heero once again.  The boy had not even looked up from his meal to see what he and the other boy had been discussing. Wiping his mouth with his napkin, he spoke directly to Heero.

"Yuy," he said firmly and when he did not look up, he spoke again. "Yuy, look at me for a minute."

The pilot of Wing did indeed lift his head from his meal but only so his eyes would focus in the general direction and obviously avoiding eye contact.  Wufei, expecting this, sighed quietly.  He was sure he was right but felt sorry that he was. 

"Yuy, have you ever heard of Asperger Syndrome?"

"What's that?" Duo interrupted.

Heero ignored him and returned to eating his meal mechanically. Chang also ignored Duo but waved his one hand signaling him to remain silent. 

"Yuy, where have you heard of it before?" Wufei did not get a response so he asked again using a firmer voice. 

"Dr. J told me," Heero replied quietly and then rose from the table with his hands clenched so tightly they seemed to vibrate. "I have mission reports to do."

"Hey, come back here! Wufei wasn't done talking to you yet!" 

"Let him go Duo, that's probably all we're going to get out of him right now," Chang explained. 

"But what was that?"

"What? Asperger Syndrome?"

"Yeah, Ass-burger…whatever."

"AS…It's a pervasive developmental disorder usually diagnosed in childhood. It's basically similar to high functioning Autism. Do you know what that is?"

Maxwell thought for a moment and then replied, "That's what that guy in 'Rain Man' had, right?"

Of course, the American would relate everything to a movie.  "Correct. Although AS is not quite so debilitating. It can sometimes miss being diagnosed and the person with it just labeled as odd or eccentric.  Typically, they lack social skills, cannot maintain normal eye contact, have stereotypic motor behaviors, can't read other people's facial expressions, and have an interest in something to the point of obsession."

"Geez…that's Heero alright!"  Duo said looking in the direction the Japanese pilot had retreated in.

Wufei nodded and they both fell into silence as they continued their meal.  When they were done eating, they cleared the table and did the dishes in a companionable silence. Both were deep in thought regarding their comrade who seemed to now have a bigger problem than the war.

"So what are we going to do to help, Heero?"

"Well, I need to talk to him again, before we do anything," Wufei responded as they sat back down at the table. "If Dr. J knew about it and informed Yuy of it, then maybe he's had some intervention.  If not…I don't know what we are going to do."

"We can help him right? We can make him better?"

"It's not like that, there's no cure for it. It's not an illness or something like that. It's more like people with AS are missing a few pages of their human instruction booklet on how to be human. They have to be trained to respond to other people like normal people do."

"That won't be easy, he always runs to his computer when I try to talk to him," Duo said resignedly.  "Now that I think of it, he does always run away from me when I try get him to do something he doesn't want to do. Its like that stupid computer is a security blanket for him."

"You may be right about that," Wufei said rising from the table.  "Typing may be his 'stereotypic motor behavior' or 'self-stimulating behavior' what he does when he is over stimulated. I was reading that many times people with AS tend to do things like finger flapping, rocking back and forth, banging their head against things, or hitting themselves."

"Ack! I hope he's not in his room beating himself!" Duo said running out of the kitchen. Wufei followed at a more controlled rate.  When they got to Heero's room, they found him typing away at his laptop.  He seemed oblivious to the other two pilots entering his room.  Glancing around the room, they could see that everything in it was precisely ordered and organized. 

"Yuy, I didn't mean to upset you but we need to talk," Wufei started.  "Duo was worried about you and we both want to help. But you need to answer a few questions before we can. What did Dr. J say about Asperger Syndrome?"

The typing stopped but the other boy did not turn around.  "He said that was why I don't understand people."

"Thank you for answering," Wufei said surprisingly warm.  "Did he do anything about it, did he include things in your training to help you?"

"Yes," Heero replied turning around to face the other boys; he briefly looked to each of their faces before focusing his eyes lower on the space between their shoulders as they stood beside each other in his room. "He did some eye contact training and got me to stop hitting myself."

"You type when you get overloaded, don't you?"  Duo asked already expecting the answer. The Wing pilot nodded and started to turn back around to his computer.  He was obviously uncomfortable with the other boys.

"Yuy, look here again," Wufei stated firmly and waited for him to do so. "Do you want us to work with you to help you understand other people better since Dr. J only tried to get you to be a functioning soldier?"

The boy nodded slowly. "I don't understand Maxwell at all.  He's too…. Too… active."

"I'm too much for you to handle right now?" Duo said sadly. 

Yuy nodded. "Chang is not as bad. You are quiet and don't ask me about things I don't understand."

"We'll try to help you figure out Maxwell and other people, Yuy," Wufei replied. "He is an extreme example."

"Hey now!"

Heero started typing again and Wufei knew that they had pushed the limits with him. So he motioned for Duo to follow him out of the room.  When they reached the room they shared, he went straight to his computer sitting on the desk. 

"Great, not you too!" Duo said sinking down on the bed. 

"I'm not ignoring you," he said turning to look the other boy in the eye.  "I'm trying to find some exercises we can work with Yuy on to get him to at least be able to read other people's facial expressions and how to respond better to conversations."

"Oh! So what can we do?" The American said excitedly as he jumped from the bed and squatted beside the other boy so he could see the screen.  They spent most of the evening finding things they could do and setting up some activities they could do with their comrade.  The next morning they started working with Heero on matching emotions with the smiley faces they had drawn on notebook paper. Everything they read said to make things simplistic at first so as not to overload the person. 

"Yuy, you have to look up when you answer," Wufei was heard saying over and over again. It seemed eye contact was a real problem for Heero. "Focus on my nose instead of my eyes.  Now you're staring, don't focus so long."

Later on it was things like situational exercises that they worked on. Duo seemed quite adept at drawing little comic strips to illustrate a story. "Trowa has an apple for Quatre.  Quatre wants a banana. Quatre thinks that Trowa has an apple for him. What does Quatre want?"

"The banana."

"Good," Duo continued. "Quatre wants the banana but he thinks that Trowa has an apple for him.  Trowa gives Quatre the apple.  How would Quatre feel when he got the apple?"

Heero just looked at the paper for a while without responding. It was the first time he had gotten a feeling question along with a belief question. 

Duo prompted again, "Heero, use the smiley faces.  How would Quatre feel… happy or sad?" 

The other youth studied the two smiley faces, one was smiling and the other had a huge frown.  After a moment he pointed to the frowning one and said, "Quatre would feel sad."

"Right! Now tell me, why would Quatre feel sad?"

"Because he did not get the banana that he wanted?" 

"Great! That was perfect!"

"Hn."  Heero stood up and started to leave the room. Duo tried to stop him by grabbing at his wrist but the other boy just wrest his arm free and continued walking. 

"Let him go Duo, that was a little hard for him. He needs time to relax," Wufei explained. "Anyways, he's leaving on a new mission tomorrow, we'll have to continue some other time."

"He is improving some," Maxwell said sitting back down. "He memorized the smiley faces quickly it's just applying that to situations that is hard."

"We will work with him more the next time we meet up."

They did just that. Every time one or the other was with him they would work extensively to teach him how to interact with others. Eventually, by the end of the war, Heero was able to carry on small conversations with not only them but also the other pilots without too many mishaps involving not understanding social cues. 

After the war, Yuy tried to attend a normal school and blend in with his newfound skills. It did not work very well and he became frustrated and left to find the other pilots. He met up with Duo who continued to work with him and this time, they expanding their interaction patterns to include more people and more common social situations.  It wasn't until after the Eve's War that they met back up with Wufei again.  

As time passed, Heero improved to the point where he ventured out on his own to work away from the other two. He started out as a bodyguard to Vice Foreign Minister Dorlian.  It wasn't until after the first formal dinner that he came back to his two comrades very confused and looking for answers. 

"She kissed me," was how he explained his confusion. "She said she loved me. I don't understand that."  
  


"Well, Yuy, what does she make you feel?"

"It is confusing. I have strong emotions involving her.  I want to protect her, but that's my job. Being around her makes me happy. I can usually understand her, she is very straightforward."

"That she is, Heero," Duo replied. "She loves you because she wants to be around you and because you make her happy too."

"I made her sad though."

"You left after she said that didn't you?" Wufei asked already expecting that was the truth.

"Yes. I didn't know what to do."

"I think you need to talk to her," Duo explained. "Tell her about why you reacted like that.  She will understand and probably help so that you don't get confused by her again."

Heero did just that. It was hard to explain the whole thing to her. Even though Wufei and Duo had taught him to converse like normal people, he still did not like talking for any length of time. Relena listened the to his explanation of Asperger Syndrome and just as his friends had said, she was supportive. 

Owari.

Notes:  For more information on Asperger Syndrome, visit OASIS (Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support) 

Oh and this fic is really just an observation I made one day while I was researching for a paper.  I read the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV diagnosis for AS and it just screamed "Heero Yuy". 

"Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifest by at least two of the following: 

· marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors, such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction

· failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level

· a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with others

· lack of social or emotional reciprocity

Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifest by at least one of the following:  
          *    encompassing preoccupation with on e or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is

      abnormal in intensity or focus

· apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals

· stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerism

· persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

(DSM-IV, APA 2000 as found in The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome by Patricia Romanowski Bashe & Barbara L. Kirby, 2001)__


End file.
